Jeff--Membership Fee?/leadership and operations (Zambia)

Hi all,
Jeff from Zambia wrote:



I have closely followed the debate on the future of
AEEN and agree totally with most of the sentiments
expressed by many of my fellow members with 'a heart
for the once vibrant AEEN'.
Before we dwell much into debate, let's identify what
the type of leadership we had was before the crunch
came after the Rosebank Hotel 2004 meeting and whether
we had prepared for this Tsunami that followed
thereafter.
No! we did not apparently look through it in event of
Professor Karithi getting busy with his professorial
duties. We instead sat back while the sun shone
instead of making hay for tomorrow and the generation
to come.
During the meeting of 2004, for those of us who were
there, I raised the issue concerning sustainability of
the AEEN and I asked Professor Nixon Karithi as to
what the future of the grouping was and what would
happen in the event of donors withdrawing their
"Development Aid" to the AEEN and no tangible
alternative came out until we closed the meeting.
The question was, were we expecting to continue
operating when we as members, were not contributing
anything to the running of the AEEN affairs? the
answer was No!!.
Now that all is done and not lost, we seriously need
to agree on membership fees and other contributions
which can be submitted to a secretariat to be
established soon or later as a show of interest and
commitment to the cause for the would be sponsors to
adduce from.
I have a few names of potential sponsors like Siemens,
Sasol, Anglo American Corp., Telcom, Cell C, NEPAD,
Standard Bank, Shevron and other players that showed
interest in discussing Africa and its future
economically who I feel if talked to "nicely" can be
"excited" to come and help.
It will be unfair if I forgot to mention Guy Berger
and his pool of intellectuals at Rhodes University
whose hearts for the AEEN remains unmatched, let alone
professor Karithi, professor Tawana Kupe among others.
Looking at the countless number of corporate
organisations and individuals like Berger, Kupe and
Karithi, the AEEN still has a future which if we
revisit it, through such internet debates and it
definitely can be resucitated without much problems.
Personally, I don't know about other colleagues, I
greatly benefited from the debates at Rosebank Hotel
(what with the 'Happy Hours'. I would take the first
step to contribute towards the revival of the AEEN,
even if it meant contributing material or financial
resources, particularly now that we have an "invasion
of China" into Africa over our raw materials--does the
continent stand to benefit? It's a big question mark.
I beg to move--waiting to hear from other big brains
in the Forum.
Jeff Kapembwa
(Bloomberg News)
Zambia Correspondent.